Hola from Argentina in English

Come to the land of amor, culture, and wonderful cuisine…of the Tango, Iguazu Falls, and Buenos Aires. InternationallyKnown’s resident writer, Roxana Acosta Sosa, will take you there, to her home country of Argentina…So sit back, have a glass of wine and enjoy….

With Brazil to the northeast and Chile to the west, Argentina is that glorious country best known for its culture and cuisine, for its Tango, wine, Jorge Luis Borges, Mercedes Sosaand Diego Maradona. For Argentina, Internationally Known meets up with our newest writer-Roxana Acosta Sosa who shares her thoughts and memories from the country she knows and loves best. P.S. There’s a recipe at the end.

Culinary delights of my Native Cuisine

Argentina is a country that produces an abundance of good: quality products such as wheat, sunflower, sugar cane, and corn and a wide variety of cheese, butter and yogurts. Another great Argentine product is our wine. With so much to choose from, there seems to always be a reason to meet and enjoy these fresh products and dine together. Indeed, we love to get together with our amigos y familia and go straight to the kitchen to prepare our typical dishes. While there are dishes that are native to Argentina, many of our recipes have a strong European influence since Argentina was invaded by the Spanish, French, Italians, Ukrainians.

Empanadas: stuffed bread or pastry

Breakfasts are always European in style: My personal favorites are a latte or tea, accompanied by toast or croissants with butter and fruit jam, orange juice squeezed straight from the fruit. Some, however, do prefer the Creole breakfast with a tasty and hot “mate” (an infusion made from the yerba mate plant) served with biscuits, fresh bread, and one of the well-known Argentine delicacies–“dulce de leche” (sweet milk), a typical Argentine sweet made with sugar, condensed milk and vanilla. Mate is the national traditional drink of the country, which is made of yerba mate, it is a plant that is harvested and dried several times until it edible. You can drink it sweet or bitter, depending on your tastes.

Argentine Dinner Photo by April Killingsworth

Meat cooked on the grill is the best, and probably the most requested dish by foreigners who visit us. It is the staple food in our diet and can be prepared grilled on an iron, fried or baked. On the grill, you can try both regular sausages or Creole sausages which are made with pork meat; many people choose to eat them with French bread and call them “choripán”, which is similar to a hot dog. It is also common to see at an Argentine meal a delicacy called black pudding, which includes nuts and raisins. These dishes are accompanied by a variety of salads and grilled vegetables. One of the typical salads is the Russian salad which is made with potatoes and boiled carrots, boiled egg, all cut into cubes, parsley and some will stick green olives, and mayonnaise; its dressing is creamy and rich, made with eggs and oil. This type of mayonnaise gives a wonderful touch to most salads.

The Milanesa or Milanese is another typical menu. It can be made of beef, chicken breast or fish. This dish consists of egg, salt, a little of flour and breadcrumbs. It can be cooked in the oven but many people prefer them fried.

For vegetarians, there is also a variety of pasta. Argentina offers pastas that are accompanied with different kinds of homemade sauces. One of the traditional dishes is stuffed pasta such as ravioles (raviolis), Canelones (cannelloni), lasagna, sorrentinos, Capelletti, ñoquis (gnocchi) and more.

Argentine wines are among the best in the world, especially the red. The production and exportation of wine plays an important role in trade. Foreigners can visit the vineyards along with a guide, and learn about the harvest of grapes, and the process of wine production; one of the most important brands is the Malbec variety.

The Fish, especially in coastal areas, offers a marvelous variety, such as hake, Golden, surubí, mackerel, and croaker. Seafood is rich and abundant and we often dine on delicacies such as squid, shrimp, mussels and our most favorite delight– the crab of the southern seas.

In the winter, the climate changes, and it becomes quite cold in our country, but we keep ourselves warm with great dishes such as homemade stews. For this dish, you need rice or dry noodles, vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, lentils or peas while some people like to put meat or chicken but you can it without meat too.

As you can see, there are many reasons to go to Argentina..places to see, a culture to experience, locals to meet, and of course, a wonderful cuisine to taste.

Hasta la Proxima,

Roxana

Now residing in India, Roxana is a writer and teacher who often gives talks on Argentina. Born and raised in Argentina, Roxana joined Internationally Known in July 2016.

Argentine typical sweet: mini cakes with quince sweet

Ingredients:

½ kg common flour.

150 grams of butter or animal fat.

A little bit of salt.

1 glass of warm water.

½ kg of quince sweet.

400 grams of common sugar.

Oil for frying.

Dough or mass preparation:

Place the flour with the salt in a crown form, cut the butter and put it in the centre, keep adding water slowly to form smooth dough and let it rest 20 minutes.

Roll out to the thickness of 3 mm and cut squares of 8 cm.

Place some quince in the centre of each square, painted with fresh wather around and cover with another square of dough but with overlapping ends.

Nip down the dough, pressing the edges to close the mini cake.

Fry them in hot oil.

Preparation of syrup:

Put the sugar in a saucepan.

Cover the sugar with water.

Boil for few minutes until the syrup just take some colour.

Spread the mini cakes for the syrup.

Remove and serve them

Clarification:

Quince sweet can be known with different names depending on the geographical area, such as quince or ate meat quince, quince, membrillate, codonyat or codoñate. If not suit you, we also use the sweet potato filling in replacement for quince. This sweet also has its variations depending on your area of residence, for example in some places it is known as boniato,moniato or camote. Choose the sweet that you like more for make your mini cakes and enjoy them with a delicious tea.

Argentine typical sweet: mini cakes with quince sweet

Ingredients:

½ kg common flour.

150 grams of butter or animal fat.

A little bit of salt.

1 glass of warm water.

½ kg of quince sweet.

400 grams of common sugar.

Oil for frying.

Dough or mass preparation:

Place the flour with the salt in a crown form, cut the butter and put it in the centre, keep adding water slowly to form smooth dough and let it rest 20 minutes.

Roll out to the thickness of 3 mm and cut squares of 8 cm.

Place some quince in the centre of each square, painted with fresh wather around and cover with another square of dough but with overlapping ends.